under the tuscan sun

I'm in Italian heaven! I'm writing today from Siena, the heart of Chianti county in Tuscany. And the internet is free!!!! That's definitely a first in Italy... the other opportunities for internet were around $3 for anywhere for 10 minutes to 30.

Spent two days in Venice, a city that I absolutely love. I was very excited to see it because that was the one place on this trip that I visited when I came to Europe 9 years ago. So I was anxious to see if the Plaza San Marco was as I remembered, which it was! We stayed in a nice hostel for 3 days with our own private bathroom- felt pretty spoiled. We visited the Friar, a beautiful church that was also the burial ground for many artists/sculptors from the 13th century. Venice is well known for it's glass blowing so we took the "bus" (a boat) to Murano, an island that all the glass blowing was moved to in the 1290s because of fire danger in Venice from the glass blowing process. And to be sure we got our monies worth for the day long "bus" pass, we did a "cruise" on the dirty little boat bus all the way around Venice, which ended up taking almost 2 hours and began to rain on us. But Venice is beautiful at dusk and we enjoyed it nonetheless. I hate to admit but I didn't realize that Venice really doesn't have any vehicles, only boats! These are some of the questions Catie and I pondered while riding the boats: Do they have rush hour? Where are the gas stations? Do they have to take drivers ed? Do they have traffic jams? Does Venice have any drive/swim/boat- thrus? Do kids get boats for graduating from high school instead of cars? Has anyone ever tried to water ski down the channel? How do the ambulances work? What is really at the bottom of that channel? Some of these questions we may never want answered...

The next two days we spent in Florence. Florence has a lot of art and history behind it so we became true tourists for the first time on this trip. We went to the Duomo, the 4th largest cathedral today; visited the Uffizi, an art museum said to rival the Louvre displaying da Vinci and Boticelli; San Lorenzo, the leather capital of the world; and my favorite, the Academie, another art museum where I stood in awe in front of Michaelangelo's David. Everyone said it was amazing but I had no idea. We also ate the best gellato in Florence... 3 times... the best italian food in Florence (agreed), walked across the famous bridge, and drank a beer next to the river.

Yesterday we took a bus an hour from Florence to Siena, where we are today. Siena is in Tuscany (which is actually a region, so Florence is technically in Tuscany also) but Siena is also in Chianti region, of the classic chianti wine. We checked into our FIRST hotel that we've stayed at yesterday and immediately saw a pamphlet for a wine tour around the Tuscan region. We booked immediately- and the lady who spoke no english asked me if we booked it, I said yes and she grabbed my arms and jumped up and down with me (Catie, Michael and I were so excited about this!!!). The tour was everything we hoped it would be; we drove through Chianti vineyards and discovered what makes Chianti wine different than others, then toured San Gimingo, the typical town you picture when you think of Italy with it's stone walls and streets. After came the best part- we visited the winery of a man who bought the farm in 1987 after being a veterinarian for the start of his life, because he wanted to make wine "as a hobby." He now produces wine, olive oil, honey, body lotion, and his true passion- balsamic vinegar. It was amazing!! When he bought the farm, he found an envelope buried under some stones in the house from a priest over 155 years ago. In the envelope was a recipe for a specific wine that included 5 spices, 2 types of honey and I believe 2 grapes. The recipe did not include any quantities though, so he spent over 20 years trying to make the wine. Last year he bottled the first bottle of wine following the recipe, determined by taste. Him and his wife walked us through the winery, talked about the proces of making all these products, fed us and let us sample almost everything. This was my Italian heaven. And I might have a box of his wine and products being shipped to my house.....

I know you're all curious- the food is fantastic. I gotta say though, I have been craving a greek salad ever since I stepped into Italy which makes me think that Greece food was better, but Italian is great. I've had lasagna, spaghetti with clams and mussels, ravioli with truffle sauce, a lot of pizza, and gnocchi with gorgonzola sauce. And a ton of gellato! And a few cappucinos :) I'm very curious if I'll continue to drink coffee in the states.....

buen camino!